Everyone has a story. We came here to Planet Earth to have one. It’s what we’re supposed to do because we were created to be story-tellers. Our story about who we are is often, a mind-made and unhappy story – even though we did arrive here with our true identity tucked safely inside awaiting the moment of recovery.

In the meantime, we take on the stories about us, told by elders and authority figures, of who they think we are – and , well … we believe them! And that’s all it takes for us to assume that the role assigned us by a parent, a teacher, an older sibling, or grandparent is true. Why sometimes the very family system itself, without any particular person saying so, assigns us an artificial definition of who we are, that we, often blindly, take on as true!

And none of this is “bad” or “wrong.” After all we are here to try on various versions of ourself and then observe the results. Much like a scientist in his laboratory, our mind is constantly testing our hypotheses about who we are in this laboratory of life to determine what fits and what doesn’t. And it works amazingly, especially when we can consciously engage in the experiment … but it becomes VERY painful indeed when we mistake the story we’re playing for who we are, in fact.

Like any skilled performer, we take on a character and become it. We dress like that person, we act like them, we speak and respond to life as if we were them, and it seems bound to happen sooner or later, that we get completely enmeshed in the role, forgetting who we really are altogether! And if the truth be told. most of us don’t even know we have a choice! We simply take on a role assigned to us through messages we internalized as a child and feel and act that part into becoming our own personal version of Reality.

So who are we REALLY?

In Reality, there is a TRUE story about who we are. We call this self the Higher Self, or the Bigger Story. When we are in our true nature, we remember that we are NOT the unhappy story we’ve made up based on others judgments and opinions. When we are operating out of our True Selves, we KNOW we have a choice about what character and story we want to play out. We know we are free to choose what story we want to invest belief in, and we choose consciously, instead of unconsciously creating the painful version we’ve used before to define us.

We tell our children that they are created by Goodness … with a specific purpose in mind. Like the master pot-thrower, who throws every pot for a reason – each to perform a particular task, like making a cup for tea, a vase for flowers, or a bowl for rice, we too are individually and uniquely tailored for a specific task. And it’s always FOR us. This Goodness that creates us not only loves us, as its creation, but guides, provides for and protects us. Remembering this simple profound truth helps us distinguish who we think we are from who we are in Reality.

And we are also given freedom to CHOOSE what sort of character we want to experience in life. Done with consciousness, this is always a teaching opportunity that brings great wisdom and insight … and because we are consciously participating in it, we can remain fluid – returning to the memory of who we are anytime we get too caught up in the illusion of a story that is just that … a story.

We all have belief systems that are based on an often inherited lineage of beliefs that run in our family and comes down to us through our DNA. Uncovering these belief systems without needing to fix, eradicate, deny, or judge them even, allows us to bring them to consciousness. It is the act of shining the relentless light of consciousness on these belief systems that refines us. Below is a description of my own belief system, parts of which, I dare say, you may well recognize and relate to … but that’s just my guess … 😉

“I Am Bad”: A Sample Belief System

I found the “I am bad seed” within me today. It was buried beneath layers of smurky darkness, gathered into a single knot. I pinpointed it at its’ very start – there where it dominates over my heart.

It said: “I committed some unforgivable wrong, which completely taints and covers my creative song. I am punished, and deserve to be. With nowhere to belong and no place to hide, I stand rejected, and left behind. I am deserted, but nothing more do I deserve. Thoughts of forgiveness are absurd, because I am to blame. It is my fault and I will not receive anything good or right. I can never have what I want, because I blew it before I was even born. I don’t remember what I did, or why, that part remains unclear … but this I fear, and surely know; I have done the thing that cannot be forgiven, and deserve to die. It’s truly only Universal Compassion that allows me to abide.”

“I’m bad” along with all the thought bubbles that go with it, swirl round in my head, saying things like, “I”m ruined, and in deep despair … I’m forever damaged and unforgivable, but how can I say it’s unfair? It is after all my fault, There is no hope for me, and though I may deserve to die I am not ready! I will to LIVE! Woe on me for failing to accept my just punishment for the failure I am. But I cannot help it, nor put aside my desire to live, to love, to find respite – and to me, believing thusly, this line of thinking further proves my inferiority – more evidence I must hide. What will it take for me to swallow my pride – to confess my wrong, and pay the price?” It is too much for me … I cannot do it … I refuse. See how rebellious, how I insist on my wrong doing. I am bad to the bone.”

“So then … never mind how unlovable I am, how unforgiven; never mind how rejected, or undeserving, in spite of being forever unforgivable and deserving of suffering., I will do what I must to survive – even it if means I must be as bad as ‘they’ say (who they are I cannot name, only a lasting impression that I stand condemned …), so I will rudely push them away – I am hell-bent to keep the world at bay. They don’t want to be with me anyway. I’ll give them one chance to love me anyway … to debunk my thesis … I will put them to the test. Will they split or will they last? Their reaction will tell me all that I need to know”; but in the end it only reinforces everything I have come to believe … about the bad, sinful me.”

The only thing it really shows is how I set you up to help me to verify the lie I unwittingly believe. It’s an unhappy lie I committed my life to believing a long time back, before I knew the truth, before I had the facts. It’s the way I have perhaps always believed. I’ve never challenged it, I’ve never asked “why?” It’s been my number one priority – my single pointed, mind-made Reality, and that which I have firmly believed … a pack of lies from which I have never strayed.

What I describe here is a belief system, and nothing more. Though it rules our whole life by way of the mind – it’s not a bad thing, it’s not a crime. Every single person has one … and that’s by design. These belief systems are what we’ve come to Planet Earth to live out. We play them out in form, and then blame others, even to all of mankind, for the storm we create and live amidst. We persist in believing that it’s happening outside of us, when, in Reality, it’s clear to all who can see, that it’s a web of lies we’ve committed to believing into physicality. We remain committed to the crazy past, and replay it yet again, as if we don’t understand …. as if we are victims who played no part … when we both know, that it was what we expected and believed right from the vert start.

This production to which we are so deeply rooted consists of an unconsciously chosen cast, each hand-picked to play their part. We hand them their role; we ask them to memorize every line, and to say it right on cue, every time. And because they love us, they do … even though the lines we give them often cut to our very core and prompt us to turn away. We justify our innocence and turn on them instead, and blame them for the roles we unwittingly asked them to play. After all, they were simply playing their part. Why now then do we accuse them of having no heart?

Whatever your “Bad Seed” drama is about, from the evidence you gather you will prove beyond a doubt, that you are as wrong, as lacking, as unlovable as you fear. Once again your evidence will point the finger to say, “It’s because you are wrong, less than, or just plain bad beyond repair; you therefore do not deserve to be loved …” What will you decide to do then? Will you drive people away, and then blame them for leaving, thinking this is the only way to be safe, without having to compromise your investment in the the lie you committed to so long ago – the lie from which you have refused to stray, no matter how many others you have betrayed, no matter how bad it hurts to go on believing,

It’s as if we marry and remain forever loyal to an exceedingly unhappy way of seeing ourselves, and I think we must do so until such a time when we aim, from a happier place, to tap into an inner space from where sings a happier tune. Although perhaps barely audible, the healing tune hums unabated with a quiet certainty within the heart and mind, beneath the ruthless, much louder chatter … But we must listen … shhhh…. listen NOW for that deeper, more true, inner song … let it replace the other – let the lies be the wrong you surrender to a greater cause …. Let the seed of light that flickers within burst through the dark rich soil and reach for daylight; it’s a new song about a new beginning! Tend this new song well … feed it with care … water it with gratitude and watch it send its shoots to the sky.

A question I have explored for years, personally and professionally, is this: do feelings come from thoughts or do thoughts come from feelings? Or does it work both ways, with thoughts and feelings both prompting a response from the other?

An online friend wrote and put forth the widely upheld argument that thoughts come from feelings. He said, “You (may) … feel an intense surge of depression or you (might) begin to laugh – these states are not caused by thinking they are emotional communications that override any thoughts.”

For a long time I shared a similar logic. I agreed with such evidence as my friend presented when he said, “You see a spider/snake/lion and you feel fear – instantly – there is no thinking about it.”

That sort of logic made sense to me for a long time.

In more recent years, however, my thinking has shifted. As a result of experimenting with the idea that feelings cause our thoughts, I have concluded the opposite; it is thoughts that determine our feelings.

In John 1:1 we read, “In the beginning was the Word.” What is a word, if not spoken thought? In the beginning there is thought, which is the mental energy that generates an electromagnetic energy field that makes all manifestation possible. In other words, thought creates the energetic pattern, or basic structure that brings the thought into form. Thought comes first.

Here’s how it works:

We adopt a set of beliefs from the thoughts we think. These beliefs coalesce into a story about life (And believe me, we have stories about everything!). For example: we may have a story that spiders/snakes/lions are dangerous. Perhaps that story comes from s program we saw on TV about a lions attack, or perhaps we once saw our dad kill a rattlesnake, or maybe we remember hearing our mother scream when she saw a spider once and, as a result, we have a story in our minds about that particular animal being dangerous. Of course, if, and when we encounter that animal our story about it is triggered in our memory, and we react accordingly. This all happens automatically according to the following formula: Thoughts believed generate feelings that prompt behavior. WE DON’T HAVE TO THINK ABOUT IT. The energetic imprint is already in place!

Actually, we now know that this thought/feeling imprint becomes a neural pathway in the brain! After all, what is a neural pathway, but the process of thinking the same old thoughts, feeling the same old feelings, and reacting in the same old ways, over and over again? This repetition creates a literal “wrinkle” in our brain that becomes our default position: one that can be triggered at any point in the neural loop.

Any outside event, like smelling a particular scent, or seeing something familiar, or the way something feels, can trigger the neural loop and off we go into our deeply embedded “core” pattern of thinking, feeling, and reacting, which produces the same predictable outcome every time. It is an automatic happening.

What’s more, in recent times, Epigenetics has discovered that our genes change according to our thoughts! This implies that our DNA is capable of being changed. Uploaded with new information, our genes re-inform our DNA, and suddenly we are completely changed – from the inside out! This finding also implies that our belief system is contained within our DNA and is passed on to our lineage. So when we clear our beliefs, we change our DNA which, in turn changes future generations.

It has even been conjectured that, because the DNA is timeless … changes in its structure not only affect future generations but also members of our bloodline already born! Clearing our beliefs then becomes the way we “cleanse our bloodline” from destructive beliefs and replace them with more life-giving ones instead.

I believe that the mind is the creator – always. The first by-product of the mind is thought, When the thought becomes a belief, it sets up an emotional energy field that informs our behavior. (Think of the mind as a generator that cranks out emotional energy in the form of feelings.) When we encounter someone/something that triggers one of our stories or beliefs, we automatically feel the feelings that go with that story/belief and we behave accordingly.

References:

“Why Your DNA May Not Be Your Destiny”: http://www.livescience.com/37135-dna-epigenetics-disease-research.html

“Falling For This Myth Could Give You Cancer“: by Dr. Mercola: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/04/11/epigenetic-vs-determinism.aspx

When a doctor gives a patient a prognosis based on worse case scenarios, telling that patient to expect the worse, the patient is highly likely to nod their head in acquiescence and succumb to the program they’ve been handed – and indeed live out the prognosis to the letter. That is, UNLESS that patient tends to be a natural rebel, one who bucks authority, in which case, they might not be so willing to comply with the doctor’s prediction! Sometimes being a rebel is a good thing! 😉

The point I’m trying to make is that in spite of all of the preparation and precision that has gone into developing the best professional tools for medical treatment, there seems to be a vital link missing in the western approach to healing.

To me, the missing link appears obvious – for, in my opinion, it is one of the most POWERFUL requirements for healing – our own mental perception of our condition. What does the patient believe is possible for them? Do they BELIEVE the prognosis they’ve been handed of impending doom, worse case side-effects, etc? How do they feel and respond when they swallow – hook, line, and sinker – the scary diagnosis they’ve been handed? Because if they did, then they will automatically “send orders” to the body to follow the predicted course – and the body, being the good servant that it is, will do just that.

I think it was Bernie Siegal, MD, author and pediatric surgeon, who noted that the patients who hold the best chance at complete remission, from Cancer, for instance, are the ones who are the most difficult to handle! They dpn’t tend to “just go along with …” They ask questions – lots of them – and they don’t always follow doctor’s orders.

Survivors think for themselves; they refuse to blindly accept someone else’s limited prognosis as being “gospel” for them – even if it is their doctor who is delivering the words. Thrivers in life dare to leave a doorway in their minds open to the possibility of a radically different and much happier outcomes than the ones served up to them by well-meaning professionals.

It is those who hold a vision of themselves as being strong, healthy, and well, regardless of what the lab results and doctors say, that make miracles possible. They have learned to employ denial to work for them (denial is NOT always bad!), by refusing to buy into the predicted outcomes as pertaining to THEM! They deny the effect of their conditions and block out anything that distracts them from holding the radar-sharp focus of their intention on what it is they envision as their reference point for healing. In other words, they believe in Another Possibility. This belief in another possibility gives them a mental immunity which protects them from predicting their own negative outcomes.

You see, it is possible to know the “facts” about our condition, to choose whatever treatment is offered that we deem most beneficial for us, and STILL deny the negative outcomes that are predicted. We do not have to accept as true for us what others may have experienced, or by believing thoughts like, “these are the things that will happen because of my condition.” These dreaded symptoms, these “forewarnings,” are presented to us as if they are reality by the well-meaning people in our life – and more often serve to hinder our progress, I fear, rather than support it.

Simply put it’s the mind that decides our health. When we hold a mental vision of ourselves as healthy, happy, and well, we will feel, and act accordingly, and we will find ourselves living a lifestyle in harmony with, and therefore conducive to, the healthier vision of ourselves that we hold.

Not only that, but holding a vision of radiant health attracts the people and resources that already surround us; it’s as if we suddenly wake up to a life created to meet our every need, as if everything is placed right where we will find it the moment we need it. For this indeed is the Reality of Life. Our needs are met – we must only lift our eyes to see that it is so.

But when we mentally attune our thoughts to the unhappy expectations of others, especially when those others are basing their words on “scientific proof,” or “medical evidence” which makes it sound so TRUE, we tend to fall under the spell of believing what we hear … and living it out in life. For truly, it is our belief in a thought, in other words, the amount of “faith” we put in what we hear, that seals the deal!

We live up to the expectations of those to whom we give mental authority over us. But don’t get me wrong! I am not saying they are responsible for our outcomes!

There is no blame. Even if others, through their limiting belief about our possibilities for recovery, do plant seeds of doubt with their words, it is up to us whether to take on those seedlings as our own. We decide whether we will cultivate them and fertilize them into becoming the full grown beliefs that will run our life – and often ruin our health – or whether we will let them die on the vine from lack of attention.

But ,what do we do about it?

We must turn our attention, our focused intention, our faith, to the belief in a better possibility …

The mind is a potent tool. We can burn ourselves with it, or we can learn how to use it’s razor sharpness to work for us. We can aim the mind with thoughts filled with terrifying”what if’s” and manifest the life that goes with that frequency of thoughts, or we can consciously choose to aim the mind’s manifesting intensity on creating a better alternative.

It seems to me that the critical question we must ask ourselves is this: “How might the outcome be different (for us, for out clients and patients) were we to refuse to put our clients (family members, friends, or patients) into a box with a limited prognosis painted on the label?”

What would be different, if, instead of saying, “Here is the long list of worse case scenarios that you are most likely going to experience through this course of treatment,” we instead worked to support them in envisioning better possibilities for themselves? What if we took time to hear what vision the patient presently holds for their outcome of treatment? What if we were to treat the mental image they hold of themselves as being just as critical to recovery as any physical treatment we, as specialists, might have to offer? What if we worked with them to build mental immunity? Might we see better outcomes, more miracles in healing, if that approach were incorporated into the treatment of every patient regardless of diagnosis?

I contend so … only because I’ve seen the difference it has made in my own health to hold a vision of health in alignment with Reality (rather than my story ABOUT Reality), and because I’ve witnessed in others how transformative it is for them when they reframe their limiting vision of themselves, and build their mental immunity against the viral influence of negative images we pass on to one another thoughtlessly. We can learn how to encourage a vision of radiant health instead in one another that will act as a “placebo for the mind” that can heal even the most dire conditions.

I am excited about the tools for envisioning new possibilities for ourselves that NeuroCue is bringing to us … and especially honored to have been asked to write my program, The Reality Formula, as one of the programs they offer for building new neural pathways to peace. Neurocue uses the latest technology in phone apps, and neuroplasticity. Go to Neurocue.com TODAY, and begin to envision health and happiness for yourself NOW!

Resisting our addictions does not help us eliminate them. Let’s use the example of smoking.

When we think of ourselves as addicted to smoking, who do we become?

Remember when we believe it, we automatically feel and act is if it’s true … So it follows course then, that if we believe we’re an addict, we play the part, which reinforces the addiction. Then of course, we “hate” ourselves for it. We call ourselves names: “I’m weak, can’t control myself,” etc. and feel increasingly hopeless. So then we smoke to relieve our suffering and so the “addiction cycle” goes round ….

BUT, what if we were to reframe our perception of the behavior? What would happen if we were to perceive smoking as a sacred ritual, instead of an addiction we can’t get past? What would happen, do you suppose, should we give ourselves permission to smoke (since we ARE smoking anyway) and framed it as a ritual we partake in only when it’s necessary (every time we smoke) instead?

I’ve found that when we change our perception from being a problem to being a lesson – or as an initiatory process we are moving through – it leaves us room to move past it eventually instead of staying stuck in the addictive cycle.

Stop forbidding yourself to be where you are … back off and look for the ways it’s exactly where you need to be instead … and you just may find that one day you simply move away from the behavior, not because it’s a “bad” thing but because it’s outlived its usefulness.